Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to content sharing, and, more specifically, to techniques for sharing real-time content between multiple endpoints.
Description of the Related Art
A conventional screen sharing application allows geographically disparate parties to share display data with one another across vast distances. Typically, each party executes an instance of the screen sharing application on a local computer. One of the parties is designated as the “leader.” The leader assumes responsibility for curating the specific display data that is shared. For example, a first party designated as leader could share display data with a second party. The second party would then view that display data locally. As a general matter, when one party is designated as the leader, that party retains control over the screen sharing application until specifically relinquishing control to another party.
One drawback of the above approach is that the “leader” designation must be manually passed from one party to another in order to allow the other party to share display data. Consequently, if a first party is currently the leader, and a second party wishes to share display data, the second party cannot do so until the first party designates the second party as the leader. This process is overly complicated and generally interferes with effective communication between the two parties.
As the foregoing illustrates, what is needed is a more effective approach for sharing display data, and other types of data, between geographically separated parties.